Whatever changes owner Tom Benson and his advisory group have in store for the Hornets, none of them should involve replacing the general manager and head coach.

Rusty Costanza / The Times-PicayuneMonty Williams coached maximum effort out of the Hornets lineup, which didn't have a lot of talent and was depleted by injuries.

Dell Demps and Monty Williams are keepers, regardless of what the Western Conference standings indicate.

This season has been brutal on the Hornets, beginning with a vetoed trade, extending through a nearly unfathomable plethora of injuries, including almost too many rookies, Developmental League call-ups and 10-day contract players of which to keep track. Each player’s jersey should’ve included a “Hello, My Name Is” patch, because half the time it was almost impossible to keep track of who was coming and going, who was injured or not.

Just this Tuesday, center Chris Kaman was given off the rest of the season (bruised tibia) and center Emeka Okafor, whom Kaman replaced in the lineup, officially was shut down because of the bruised left knee that has caused him to miss 35 consecutive games.

And yet Demps, the general manager who didn’t quite have the say on personnel that he should have, appears to have unearthed some solid future contributors via trades (Xavier Henry and Greivis Vasquez) and re-signed free agents (Jason Smith, Carl Landry and Marco Belinelli) who can help in the rebuilding process.

And Williams, despite having just eight available players for two games, having had 25 lineups, and having had the team’s best player (guard Eric Gordon) on the court for fewer than 10 games, coached up the roster about as well as could have been expected.

He coaxed maximum effort, if not always execution, from a team that possibly would’ve been lottery-bound even if Chris Paul hadn’t been traded.

The argument could be made that no general manager-coach combination had a more difficult job this season than Demps and Williams, and that no combo did a better job of handling their lots.

Now, obviously, adjustments will be made by the new hierarchy.

Some good people who are current and longtime Hornets employees undoubtedly will be seeking employment in the near future. Those support people and their families are the group we should be concerned for, 1,000 times more than for a general manager or coach, whose salaries and hit-the-road checks substantially can cushion the blow of a gap in employment.

Brett Duke / The Times-PicayuneGeneral Manager Dell Demps continues to unearth solid future contributors who may be able to help in the rebuilding process.

It’s a brutal side of business, one that isn’t nearly as sexy and cheerful as having the franchise bought by a native son such as Benson.

But the new owner absolutely has the right to hire people he’s comfortable with and in whom he believes. He has a vision, and has in mind the people who can help him carry out the mission.

And Demps and Williams should headline the list of keepers among the holdovers.

While New Orleans had struggled to a conference-worst 19-42 record entering Wednesday’s game at Memphis, and the franchise is hoping like heck to land the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming draft, Demps and Williams have won over their peers in the league and earned praise for continuing to mold a competitive team out of others’ spare parts.

Have they made mistakes? Absolutely.

Telling Kaman to stay away while the franchise sought to trade him, even though he was one of the most consistent contributors on the roster, was a messy situation for Demps. Publicly calling Gordon’s injured knee a bone bruise until Gordon finally clarified the injury, post surgery, as cartilage damage didn’t exactly score the GM brownie points, either.

Williams, meanwhile, has called out himself over strategic deficiencies in some close games. And the decision to shut down Trevor Ariza, likely the team’s best defender, didn’t enhance the team’s chances of winning.

True, Williams needed to take an extended look at Al-Farouq Aminu and Henry to see what the Hornets might have in them as future wing players. But taking Ariza out of the rotation as a shooting guard and small forward, especially after point guard Jarrett Jack’s season ended early with a stress fracture in his foot, seemed almost counterproductive, especially given Gordon’s inability to stay healthy even after he returned from surgery.

But on the whole, those amount to minor objections.

Overall, considering the twin burdens of unsettled ownership and a crippling number of injuries during a lockout-shortened season, Demps and Williams have given Benson every reason to believe they know how to handle themselves under the most adverse conditions. Last season, with Chris Paul all season and David West for a portion of it, they showed what they could do under skies less cloudy. And we liked what we saw then, too.

Definitely, change is coming. Every owner has that right, and every one of them exercises it.

But sometimes, the best move is to not make one, especially when what you already have looks so promising.

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John DeShazier can be reached at jdeshazier@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3410.